Blog

Hi! I’m Lexi Lee-Johnson. I’m 19 years old and just came home to North Minneapolis after finishing my Freshman year at Jackson State University. I have worked with the youth who started Green Garden Bakery for the past six summers, since they were 9 and 10 years old. I look back on the first few summers that I've spent with these youth when they just started participating in healthy cooking and gardening classes. I am amazed and very honored to have watched these kids that grew a business from something that was completely foreign to them six years ago. I remember how much of a hassle it was to motivate these 9 and 10 year olds to work in the garden dirt on a hot summer day and now they their own garden that is 10x as big and they take so much pride in running themselves. Many of these kids were shy or bouncing off the walls and didn’t know how to talk to adults. Now they are confident business leaders that are able to talk to anyone. I can’t help but smile that youth from an urban environment started a business to build a healthier community. I started in Heritage Park as a Step-Up worker with the goal to be a mentor and motivate the kids to look beyond the gates of Heritage Park and North Minneapolis. Now I look at these young entrepreneurs and see that our roles have reversed and they are now teaching me to never underestimate someone based on their age and chase after your dreams as soon as you can! I’ll be helping out Green Garden Bakery at the Annex Farmer’s Markets on Saturdays all summer long so I hope you can come by and say hi!